The Requirements Puzzle

One of the most important things you’ll do in any project is define the customer requirements. Who better to get this information is directly from than the customer?

Last Things First
Sometimes it's most effective to work backwards. Set up a customer inquiry meeting and ask the customer to describe the final deliverable he expects from the project. Record exactly what he says. Next, ask him to define the need or problem he is experiencing that the final deliverable will help him resolve. Customers don’t need deliverables--what they need is a solution to a problem.  The deliverable is the means by which the problem is solved or alleviated, and that part is your job. All too often, a customer will ask for something that he doesn’t truly need--it’s his interpretation of how to solve the problem. Unfortunately, it can miss the mark. If you use his solution as the starting point without checking to make sure it will truly help, you’ll find yourself meeting every requirement and having a dissatisfied customer. So, before you head down that road, back up and make sure you understand the pain your customer is feeling as specifically as possible. Verify that the final deliverable will help him relieve that pain. Then you can safely move on to requirements definition.

What Do You Want?
Ask the customer to tell you what he wants from the final deliverable. A…